Chapter 30: The War to End War (1917-1918)

*ironic that pacifist, isolationist Wilson leads US to first major European war

-Jan. 22, 1917 - Wilson gave message of US 'neutrality rights' - "peace without victory"

-Jan. 31 1917 - Germans announce unrestricted warfare on all ships in war zone

War by Act of Germany(Bryce Dankers)

 -Zimmermann Note

       -Intercepted by British Naval Intelligence.

       -They incripted it and sent it to the U.S. in hope of us having a reason to join the war.

       - Note said that Germany wanted to make an alliance with Mexico and that they would continue unrestricted warfare. Shot down Lusitania and Sussex.

       - Infuriated Americans

Wilsonian Idealism Enthroned

Wilson's Fourteen Points-January 8, 1918(Bryce Dankers)

-Wilson's vision was to make big efforts and demoralize the enemy government by holding out alluring promise.

-He hoped this would help create peace among nations through economic, social, and political solutions.

-Tried to please everyone.(liberals, conservatives, Germans, tax payers, minorities)

Ex:

1. Abolish secret treaties

2. Freedom of the seas

3. A removal of economic barriers

4. Reduce military burdens.

14. Develop League of Nations(biggest goal)

Creel Manipulates Minds(Aaron)

• George Creel was head of thee Committee of Public Information. His job was to sell America on the War and sell to the world the Wilsonian war aims.
• Used "four minute men" to give speeches that contained patriotic pep.

Enforcing Loyalty and Stifling Dissent(Hillary)

ACCUSATIONS

• German Americans were being judged and accused of being spies and sabotage
• A few German Americans were tarred, feathered, beaten and, in one case, lynched
• HYSTERICAL HATRED OF GERMANS (e.g. German music wasn't played, books burned, classes cancelled)
• Espionage Act (1917) & Sedition Act (1918) both made for fears about Germans and antiwar Americans

             -applied especially to antiwar Socialist and members of IWW (Eugene V. Debs)

Nation's Factories Go to War

- nation's army and factories unprepared for war

 - hampered by 1) states' rights Democrats wanting limited government and 2) America's laissez faire policy

Workers in War Time (Laura)

• "work or fight" rule of 1918 threatened unemployed males with draft
• Samuel Gompers and AF of L supported the war
• Industrial Workers of the World were against the war and sabotaged industries
• the greatest strike in American history occurred in 1919 when 1/4 million steelworkers walked off their job
  • employeers brought African Americans in to fill their positions

Suffering Until Suffrage (Brittan)

• Thousands of women worked in factories and fields, taking up jobs vacated by men.
• National Woman's Party, led by Quaker activist Alice Paul, which demonstrated against "Kaiser Wilson" with marches and hunger strikes.
• National American Suffrage Association supported Wilson's war.
• Wilson was impressed by women's work and endorsed woman suffrage as "a vitally necessary war measure."
• In 1917, New York voted for suffrage at the state level; Michigan, Oklahoman, and South Dakota followed.
• In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified giving all American women the right to vote!!!
• Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act of 1921 provided federally financed instruction in maternal and infant health care.
• Women continued to fight for laws protecting women in the work place and to prohibit child labor.

Forging A War Economy (Brittan)

• The FOOD Administration was headed by Herbert C. Hoover. 
• Hoover successfully led a massive charitable food drive to feed starving people in Belgium.
• Hoover prefered to rely on voluntary compliance rather than on compulsory edicts. 
• Hoover rejected issuing ration cards, but instead waged a propaganda campaign through posters, billboards, newspapers, pulpits, and movies.
• Hoover proclaimed meatless Tuesdays to save food for war.
• "Victory gardens" were put up in vacant lots and in backyards. 

Making Plowboys into Doughboys (Brittany)

• America was still shipping war materials to the Allies and supplying them with loans, which totaled nearly $10 billion
• In April and May of 1917, the European associates confessed that they were scraping the bottom not only in funds but also in manpower
• A huge American army would have to be raised, trained, and transported, or the whole western front would collapse
• A draft was the only way to raise an immense army quickly
• Six weeks after declaring war, Congress passed the draft bill
• Draft act required the registratoin of all males between the ages of 18 and 45, the law exempted men in key industries, such as shipbuilding
• Despite percautions some 337,000 men escaped the draft and about 4,000 men were excused,but within months the army grew to over 4 million men
• For the first time women were admitted to the armed forces with some 11,000 going to the navy and 269 to the marines
• Recruits were supposed to recieve 6 months of training in America and 2 more months overseas, but the urgency was so great that many doughboys were sent into battles barely knowing how to handle a rifle, much less a bayonet

Fighting in France - Belatedly

America Helps Hammer the "Hun"

14 PTS Disarm Germany (Jordan)

• In 1918 they turned to Wilson seeking peace with the 14 points.
• The German kaiser was forced to flee to nearby Holland were he lived his last 23 years of his life.

Wilsons Steps Down From Olympus

An Idealist Battles the Imperialists in Paris(Aaron)

• The Paris Conferenence- The Big Four met here to discuss issues after WW1
• The Big Four is U.S., Britian, Italy, and France
• Wilson's main goal at the conference was to establish the League of Nations.
• He had to concede to the issue of former colonies out for vengance of the vanquished powers. The victors of the war would not take possesion of conquered territory outright but recieve it as trustees of the League of Nations.

Hammering Out the Treaty (Brittan)

• The Senate would not approve the League of Nations in it's existing form.
• When Wilson was back in Paris, Clemenceau pressed French demads for the German Rhineland and the Saar Valley. 
• Wilson opposed it.
• Fance settled for a compromise where the Saar would remain under the League of Nations for 15 years and then a popular vote would change its fate.
• In exhange for dropping demands for the Rhineland, France got the Security Treaty, in which both Britain and America peldged to come to its aid in the event of another German invasion.
• French later felt betrayed as the pact failed in the Senate.
• Wilson also battled with Italy over Fiume, a valuable seaport.
• Wilson demanded that Fiume go to Yugoslavia.
• Japan and China battled it out over China's Shangdong Peninsula and the German islands in the Pacific, which had been seized by the Japanese. 
• Japan got the Islands under the League of Nations
• Wilson reluctantly accepted a compromise where Japan kept Shandong and pledged to return it to China later.

The Peace Treaty That Bred a New War (Jordan)

• Germany was hoping that it would granted Wilsons 14 points in the treaty. This betrayal helped Adolf Hitler rise to power.
• Many of the allied powers sanctioned many of their own treaties.
• The Treaty of Versailles helped develop Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Domestic Parade of Prejudice

Wilson's Tour and Collapse (1919) (Carlson)

• Midwest didn't receive Wilson as well as he'd hoped
• Rocky Mountain area loved Wilson
• Pueblo, Colorado (Sept.) Wilson collapsed and had a stroke a few days later
• this was pretty much the end to Wilson's legacy and led to Lodge's reservation

Defeat Through Deadlock (Dan)

• Senator Lodge came up with fourteen reservations unlike Wilson's 14 points.
• When congress went to vote on it, Wilson told Democrats to vote against it. The Democrats listened and the Republicans didnt get the 2/3 they need for ratification. The pact would come to Congress twice and each time it was denied.
• Wilson would rather have no 14 points than the pact with Lodge's ideas.
• Wilson knew this would be an issue in the presidental debate

The "Solemn Referendum" of 1920 (Dan)

•  Wilson hoped that Democratic presidential candidate Cox could get the treaty to pass.
• Instead, Republican Warren Harding wins the election of 1920.

Betrayal of Great Expectations (Carlson)

• if the League had survived, WWII may have been prevented; issues may have been talked out
• the Security Treaty made French and Germans build up army